Radio Tuning-In Details
16.11.1978
In November 1978, the BBC's AM frequencies for all of its national radio stations changed as a result of a redistribution of MW and LW frequencies across Europe. Here Terry Wogan talks us through the frequency changes.
Radio Times
1980
A look at whats in the festive edition of Radio Times. Look out for Mike Yarwood who looks like hes had a fall and can't get up.
**This clip contains some strobing images and 70's fashions that some viewers may find uncomfortable**
The Royal Wedding
1981
Imagine this now. The fairytale wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was THE event of the year, and the BBC was determined to provide the most extensive coverage of this historic event. Not limiting itself to just the coverage on the day, BBC1 planned a whole range of associated programming in the days leading up to 29 July. Such an extensive celebration of Royal nuptuals simply would not happen now due to a shift in public thinking, but at the time Charles and Diana were seen as the hope for the future of the Royal family. How wrong we all were.
BBC 60 Years
1982
Promoting an open day at (possibly) one of the BBC's regional centers.
The beginning of the clip sounds like "...land place". which could be Portland Place where Broadcasting House is located.
BBC Licence Fee Promo
1983
An animated reminder to get a television licence, which cost £46 when this promo was made.
BBC Licence Fee Promo
c1983
This promo warms those without a licence to keep an eye out for the detector vans.
Radio Times
1985
A quick public announcement then straight into a slightly mozzerella smelling trail for the Radio Times, featuring the cast of "Only Fools And Horses" looking ahead to Christmas telly with the help of the RT!
Radio Times
1986
To mark her appearance on the front cover, Victoria Wood promotes that week's edition of the BBC's listings magazine.
Radio Times Two's Company
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Radio1
1986
As part of a continuity link, a quick mention of Radio 1's Options 87 campaign.
Radio2 Promo
1986
Radio 2 got a revamp in spring 1986 and this promo tells us all about it, which included Derek Jameson taking over the breakfast show from Ken Bruce who moved to the mid-morning slot that he still occupies 25 years later.
BBC Licence Fee Promo
1986
Based on the "What Have The Romans Ever Given Us" sketch from Monty Python's Life Of Brian, this clip stars John Cleese as a man whos just bought his tv licence and a whole host of stars extolling the virtues of the BBC.
The first time it was shown was in the middle of one of Wogan's 3 nights a week chatshows. Wogan stunned everyone by saying we're going to a break. Up on the screen came "End of Part One" and this commercial was shown. Then back to Wogan with "Part Two" on the screen. Wogan then launched the competition where you had to name all the people in the ad plus complete the tiebreaker sentance "The BBC is good value at 16p a day because....." I don't remember the prize or the winner but considering the subject of the ad, I would not have been surprised if it was a free TV licence for 12 months. The winning tiebreak was announced on the Wogan show and was "The BBC is good value at 16p a day because.....it's cheaper than a paper or a pinta." Not true in 2009 because the Daily Star is 20p!! (the licence fee now costs 39p a day)
BBC Bafta Prizewinners
1986
BBC Television celebrated a massive victory at the BAFTA awards by running a special season of the many programmes which netted gongs that year. These included Grange Hill, Forty Minutes and of course, Only Fools And Horses.
BBC Live Session
1987
The Elvis Season continues with a few of The King's films, GI Blues, Love Me Tender as well as a live concert from Las Vegas.
BBC Daytime Club Magazine
1988
BBC Books
1990
Fast Forward advert
1990
Fast Forward was the BBC's second attempt at providing a counterpart to ITV's Look-In. Before competition rules restricted how the BBC could promote its own publications, trails like this were a common sight around children's programmes in the late 80s and early 1990s.
BBC Radio 1 Promo
1990
Radio1 Roadshow Promo
?
Number One Magazine Promo
1991
TV Licence Stamps
1991
Radio Times - Des Lynam
c1991
BBC Video Promo
c1991
BBC News Coverage Promo
c1992
BBC Sports Coverage At Its Best Promo
c1992
BBC Regional News Promo
1992
"The things that matter the most are often those which happen close to home", proclaims Kirsty Wark in this montage of stories from the BBC regions. Apologies for the absence of the very beginning.
BBC Licence Fee - Picture Hook
1993
With the impending renewal of the Royal Charter the BBC was out to remind us just what good value we got for our licence fee - yes, a day's BBC viewing and listening costs the same as a picture hook! Other promos in this series likened the cost to half a quality newspaper.
BBC Licence Fee
1993
How much would one days BBC viewing cost you? The price of one prawn (22p in those days)
Eastenders Exports
1990s
Thanks to the unique way the BBC is funded, by you the general public, we can afford to make trails like this, which are the envy of the world!
BBC Sport Promo
1996
BBC Radio 4 The Facts Promo
1996
75 Years of the BBC
1997
Billy Connolly features in this BBC promo, part of a series made to mark the Corporation's 75th anniversary.
BBC Perfect Day
from 25.12.1997
The award-winning cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", commissioned to celebrate 75 years of the BBC and featuring a plethora of big names from the music industry including Tom Jones and the man himself. The entire 4-minute video is presented here.
Despite the massive popularity of this promotion it seems not everyone liked it. BBC2 tended to show Perfect Day at weekends in the gap between the end of main programmes and the start of the overnight Learning Zone - taking five minutes out of the time available for Pages from Ceefax. In those days when the Ceefax minidiscs lasted longer than the downtime slots, this was not a popular move!
BBC Small People Promotion
1998
Digital TV was looming and the explosion in channels meant the BBC was facing competition on all fronts, especially for younger viewers. The Beeb hit back with this memorable promo celebrating over 70 years of BBC children's programmes and featuring 8-year old Scott Chisholm. The promo came in varying lengths and in our clip (1 min) Scott meets the Woodentops, Windy Miller and the wicked witch of Narnia.
BBC Digital - The Adventure Starts Here
1998
September 1998, and time for the talking to end and the action to begin. Yes, the digital era has arrived - and with it, a greatly expanded BBC Online. Unfortunately it wasn't all great back then - as can clearly be seen in the clip, the BBC's digital channels initially sported DOGs until a mass viewer revolt led to their removal.
BBC Digital Promo
1998
A short promo for the BBC's flourishing services, such as Radio 5 and the new interweb thingy....
(By the way, Nelson's last words were recorded as "God And My Country", not "Kiss Me Hardy" as many think)
BBC Digital
1999
The thrust of this promo was Richard Wilson and Angus Deyton explaining the difference in picture between analogue broadcasts and digital broadcasts, including showing three Cliff Richards to explain ghosting which is when different transmitters using the same frequency clashed.
BBC Digital Promo
1999
BBC Digital - News 24 Promo
1999
The BBC launches a new 24 hour news channel..Meet the correspondants here
BBC News Promo
1999
BBC Online Promo
1999
BBC Online Promo
1999
The BBC invent something called the internet and this is an advert for its new "web site". Find out more about it here.
(And yes, we know the BBC didn't invent the internet...)
Cricket World Cup on the BBC
1999
But it was a World Cup with a difference as far as the BBC was concerned - in 1999 the rights to test cricket passed to Channel 4 and have since disappeared from free-to-view television completely. The BBC was still able to provide ball-by-ball coverage on Radio 5 Live, as this promo shows. Note the unusual use of a cue dot on this clip.
BBC Experience
1999
Fancy seeing what goes on at the Beeb? Now you can with the BBC Experience at Broadcasting House. Heres a short trailer for it.
BBC Future World Promo
2000
At the start of the digital revolution, this promo underlines the BBC's public service credentials as its 2000 FutureWorld exhibition comes to Cardiff.
TV Licensing
2000
BBC Online
2000
Peter Offer voices this promo for one of the many and varied services available at the time on BBC Online. Since this promo was made, BBC Online has had to become more "public service" after complaints from commercial websites.
BBC Serious About Comedy
2000
A rather crap joke as told by the BBC's stars in a one big montage. Sort of like that "Perfect Day" song they did, but without the singing...
**7.5mb file - Please be patient while downloading**
BBC Proms Promo
2000
TV Licensing
2001
TV Licensing
2001
BBC Text Promo
2001
For people like us who are fans of TV nostalgia, the worst thing about digital is the fact that Ceefax is being removed. Viewers were so uninspired by the so-called simplicity of the replacement text service, and were so used to the Ceefax page numbers that those very Ceefax page numbers are now back with us if you use the BBC's text service on Freeview. Also note that at the end of the promo it reminds is that Ceefax is still available. The BBC Text branding soon disappeared. Anyone know what it is called these days or is it still actually called BBC Text?
BBC Subtitles promotion
2001
Jane Copland - best known as one of the original voices of Channel 4 - switches channels and lends her caramel tones to raise awareness of BBC subtitles. Very much a product of its time, as the BBC wouldn't ever consciously promote Ceefax now.
BBC News new media promo
2001
The BBC has always been at the forefront of technological developments and this 2001 promo for new media news delivery really was at the dawn of the world of new media which we all take for granted a decade after this promo was made.
Radio Five Live - Premiership Football
2001
And here come...the Radio 5 Live crack team! Stuart Hall is among the familiar voices who'll be commentating on every Premiership match this season.
BBC Radio 4 Promos
2001
A voice-over for a forthcoming Radio 4 promo over the Radio 4 logo of the time.
BBC Proms
2002
2002 was perhaps a year BBC Marketing would rather forget. Fresh from the row which followed the axing of the BBC1 globe symbol - and the dance idents which replaced it, the BBC attempted to make the Proms look "hip" by using the services of Big Brother narrator, Marcus Bentley, to voice that year's Proms promo together with a storyboard that was deliberately designed to attract young people to classical music. And that wasn't all - the BBC's "me too" response to Pop Idol followed that October...
BBCi Promo
2002
One of many promos for the BBC's new interactive services, from the red button to the internet. Sadly, most of the features featured in this promo were either short lived or didnt even exist.
BBC Proms
2003
Like all good politicians, the BBC's marketing men will never openly admit they got it wrong. But they don't really have to, as you can usually tell when an experimental approach is followed by a return to something more traditional. Such was the case for the 2003 Proms campaign, using a more "BBC4-friendly" voiceover and ideas. 16:9 letterbox in 4:3
BBC World Service DAB Promo
2003
The World Service was never available in the UK unless you lived in the south east and could tune into BBC for Europe on 648 MW, a service which has now been closed. However, the BBC chose to carry the World Service to its DAB multiplex and it is also available on all digital television platforms, meaning that people in the UK can now hear the much respected broadcasts which people around the globe have listened to for many decades.
BBC World Service Promo
2003
Yes we can now hear - the World Service in the UK, reminding viewers that the World Service is now available on all digital platforms.
BBCi At Your Beck and Call Promo
2003
The BBCi branding was the first name the Corporation gave for all things interactive and this promo was for the Radio Player, which provided BBC radio programmes on demand. Radio Player was the forerunner of the popular iPlayer which launched a few years later.
BBCi At Your Beck and Call Promo
2003
BBCi was also the first major push for the BBC's website six years after bbc.co.uk was first launched.
6 New BBC Channels Promo
2004
Glastonbury
2005
Since 2005 the BBC has promoted its Glastonbury coverage with a series of vox pops with Glastonbury residents talking about what the festivities mean to them. All that changes each year is the end board graphics.
BBC Digital Family
2006
Going digital a mystery? Here's uncle Peter Snow and friends to tell you how, what and where.
This Is What We Do
2006
Another self-gratifying promo highlighting the good and valid work the BBC do in providing a service(!)
BBCi Promo
2006
BBC Radio 2 Promo
2006
BBC iPlayer
2007
A short promo to help launch the BBC iPlayer, the latest service provided by Auntie, allowing you to watch again or catch up on your favourite programmes. It started out with an archive of programmes from the last 7 days but now offers programmes from the last 30.
BBC News Promotion
2008
BBC News - for when you need to know!
BBC News.co.uk Promo
2009
BBC Radio 1Xtra Promo
2009
BBC Radio 1 Promo - Zane Lowe
2009
BBC Radio 1 Promo - Chris Moyles
2009
BBC Radio 2 Promo
2009
BBC Radio 3 Promo
2009
BBC Radio 4 Promo - Today Programme
2009
BBC Radio 4 Promo
2009
BBC Radio 5 Live Promo
2009
BBC News Promo
2009
A montage of some of the BBC's reporters sending dispatches to bbc.co.uk feature in this promo for the news section of the BBC's website.
BBC World Service Promo
2009
BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Promo
2010
Chris Evans took over the flagship Radio 2 breakfast show at the start of 2010, replacing Terry Wogan who features in this promo.
BBC iplayer Promo
2010
BBC iPlayer Promo
2011
Official Website
www.bbc.co.uk